the filmmaker John Walter jumps from art to history and politics and back again, from the theater of the streets to the theater of the stage, without pause. That makes the movie, which follows a Public Theater production in Central Park of Bertolt Brecht’s epic play “Mother Courage and Her Children,” tough to summarize, which is part of its appeal. Because while the movie is about a particular staging of “Mother Courage,” it is also about the war in Iraq, theater (and bicycle riding) as social protest, the necessity and futility of art, and the agonizing human failing that Mother Courage gives voice to in "The Song of the Great Capitulation."

Starring:

Kevin Kline, Meryl Streep

Genre:

Documentary